Inoculation of one-day old chicks or other small birds using automatic vaccine injection devices is known in the poultry industry. Automatic bird injection devices, including devices suitable for injecting small bird such as one-day chicks, are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,312,353, 4,863,443, 4,758,227, 4,681,565, 4,515,590, 4,276,879, 4,177,810, 4,108,176, 3,964,481, 3,641,998. Such automated devices can allow one person to inoculate a multitude of birds with the significant economic benefit of reduced labor costs.
These automatic injection devices generally provide a movable reciprocating carrier that supports a single injection needle assembly connected to a fluid supply container. The carrier may be actuated relative to a support surface against which the chick is maintained by the operator. Once the needle reaches its extended position, and when it has penetrated into the tissue of the bird, a syringe or other dose delivery means is actuated to deliver the required dose from the supply container to the recipient bird.
It may also be desirable to separately administer different drugs or vaccines. U.S. Pat. No. 4,758,227, for example, provides two injection needles configured to be simultaneously introduced into the bird's breast muscle tissue. This automatic injection system can inject two doses at the same time. The diminutive size of intended recipient birds, such as one-day chicks, however, has limited available automatic injectors to delivering the separate doses to the breast muscle tissue on opposite sides of the keel bone.
Many therapeutic compositions are not stable or are otherwise incompatible when co-mingled. Such combinations must be injected either consecutively and/or injected into different localities in the recipient bird. Further, for vaccines or drugs that need to be administered subcutaneously into the necks of one-day old chicks, a procedure that requires more precise and limited penetration of the bird than is generally practiced by available automatic injection delivery systems is necessary. Manual injections of the drugs or vaccines are still the only procedure available, with the main drawback of reduced production. Moreover, to inject a second dose of a drug or vaccine, the birds must be rehandled, inducing undue stress in the bird and significant increases in costs.
Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 6,789,467 (the “'467 patent”) discloses a system for the injection delivery of at least two fluid doses to a small bird by penetrating the skin of the recipient bird with at least two injection needles. It is possible with the injection delivery system of the '467 patent to simultaneously inject drugs, or other fluid vaccines that do not mix well or whose mixture would be detrimental to the stability or efficacy of the active ingredients therein. Preferably, the injection ends of the injection needles penetrate the skin of the recipient bird concurrently and deliver the fluid doses to a small target tissue area. The injection delivery system provides an injection needle support for connecting the injection needles to dose distributors and fluid supply containers while maintaining the injection ends of the injection needles in a substantially parallel arrangement to allow for penetration of the bird's skin by both needles.
In addition to having a device that can inject multiple doses of vaccines or drugs simultaneously, it is important to have a device that performs this function repeatedly and accurately. Precise metering of fluids such as vaccines and drugs is important where fluids with known compositions must be conveyed at precisely definable rates or in precise quantities or doses. Metering or pumping devices provide for delivering, balancing and metering of fluids. Such metering devices typically include a driving device and a piston unit. Metering devices also typically include a hydraulic unit having a space to accommodate a hydraulic fluid that is connected to the piston of the piston unit.
Thus, there exists a need for an automatic inoculating system for small birds, especially for one-day chicks, that can automatically deliver two or more separate doses of therapeutic fluids such as drugs or vaccines repeatedly and accurately via a subcutaneous route.
Citation or identification of any document in this application is not an admission that such document is available as prior art to the present invention.